Irving S. Ribicoff, 79

Prominent City Lawyer

Irving S. Ribicoff, a prominent lawyer who served in many civic positions, died Monday.

He was 79 and had lived in Hartford.

Mr. Ribicoff had had Alzheimer's disease for a decade, his wife, Belle Krasne Ribicoff, said.

In 1941, he and his brother, Abraham Ribicoff, governor of Connecticut from 1955 to 1961 and later a U.S. senator, established the law firm, Ribicoff and Ribicoff.

``He was a lawyer's lawyer,'' recalled Belle Krasne Ribicoff, who once served on the Hartford Board of Education. ``He was dedicated to the profession and to the ethics of the profession.''

In 1945, David Kotkin was added as a partner and the firm became known as Ribicoff, Ribicoff and Kotkin. Belle Krasne Ribicoff said the firm became the first in Hartford to name a woman partner, and later to hire a black lawyer.

In 1978, the firm merged with Schatz and Schatz and became one of the largest law firms in the state. Irving Ribicoff continued to practice law until the early 1980s. He also had served on the Hartford County Grievance Committee.

Mr. Ribicoff had served as a trustee of the Greater Hartford YMCA, chairman of the Hartford Festival of Music, and a member of the business advisory committee of the New England College Fund. He was also a director of Hartford Jewish Federation and the Greater Hartford Symphony Society.

Mr. Ribicoff became active in establishing younger lawyers in later years, by serving on the board of directors for the Yale Law School Fund, and the executive committee of the Yale Law School Association.

He graduated from Williams College in 1936 and from Yale University Law School in 1939. He then began practicing as an attorney for the Reorganization Division of the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C., and then from 1942 to 1944, was chief price attorney for the state's Office of Price Administration.

He was a member of the American Bar Association and the Hartford County Bar Association, and served as a chairman of several Connecticut Bar Association committees. He was on the advisory council of the New England Law Institute, and from 1964 to 1975 was Connecticut president of the Federal Bar Association.

In addition to his brother and wife, Mr. Ribicoff leaves a daughter, Dara. His other daughter, Sarai, died in 1980.

Funeral services will be private.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Yale University Law School, Williams College, or the Alzheimer's Association.